Not sure who looks more thrilled about the fact that Brooke Logan was about to usher Hope into the world at the Big Bear cabin: older daughter Bridget, with whose philandering husband her mother conceived the child, or archnemesis Stephanie, who might as well have a “This is what happens when you’re the slut from the Valley” thought bubble over her head.
Ha — not even close. Though Brooke and babydaddy Deacon Sharpe both adored Hope — and, as a matter of fact, still do — they didn’t necessarily provide her with the stablest of all possible home lives. In fact, a few years after this photo was taken, Mom, who could never quite get off the marry-go-’round, was declared an unfit parent by Social Services, and Pop signed over his fatherly rights to Brooke’s most frequent husband, Ridge Forrester.
Nope. No matter how hard Oliver Jones tried in 2011, he couldn’t make himself vanish from the room in which girlfriend Hope (then Kim Matula) was discussing with Mom how exactly the two of them had been so confused by the masks at her high-school graduation party that they’d had sex without realizing that they weren’t shagging their significant others.
From the get-go, sparks flew between Hope and newcomer Liam Cooper, who turned out to be the son of Dollar Bill Spencer (because nobody ever turns out to be the son of Charlie the Security Guard). For better of worse, sparks also flew between Liam and Hope’s sometime stepsister, Steffy. So the moment that Hope removed his engagement ring, he slipped it on Steffy’s finger, thus beginning a game of bling toss that we’ll never believe has truly ended.
Since few and far between are the hobbies on The Bold and the Beautiful that are more popular than proposing and/or getting married, Thomas, aka Steffy’s brother and therefore Hope’s sometime stepbrother (Adam Gregory at the time), had been interested in Liam’s ex for all of five seconds before he asked if she’d marry him. It was great foreshadowing of his future obsession, but back then, we were too distracted by his abs to realize it.
After Steffy miscarried her and Liam’s child, she bequeathed her babydaddy to Hope like he was a prized brooch. But when the exes holidayed at the Big Bear cabin to talk, she got an eyeful of newcomer Wyatt Fuller in the buff, and just like that, Mr. Indecisive had himself a romantic rival. Oh, and of course, Wyatt turned out to be Bill’s son (because again, nobody ever turns out to be Charlie’s son).
Eventually, the push/pull of her relationships with Liam and Wyatt — not to mention the machinations of the latter’s manipulative Mommie Dearest, Quinn — drove Hope to Milan. What, did you think an heiress like her was going to be driven to Encino? Upon returning to Los Angeles, Hope (now Annika Noelle) immediately became a spectator to the dissolution of Liam’s latest marriage to Steffy — and Steffy’s successor.
Hope and Liam looked for a hot second like they might actually stand a chance of living happily ever after… that is, until skeevy Dr. Reese Buckingham told Beth’s mom that their baby had been stillborn and sold her to, of all people, Steffy. In her grief, Hope pushed away Liam and bonded with Thomas as a stand-in for his son Douglas’ ill-fated mother, Caroline Spencer — you remember, Bill’s niece (because nobody is ever Charlie’s niece).
How happy were Liam and Hope to discover that their daughter was alive? Erm, this happy. And all they’d have to do to wipe the slate clean and start over again was invest in some heavy-duty therapy for the tyke to get her used to the fact that she was no longer named Phoebe after Steffy’s late twin. Well, that and wave bye-bye to…
By this point, Thomas (now Matthew Atkinson) was well and truly obsessed with Hope. And getting rid of him was going to involve him taking spills off of cliffs, into vats of acid… You name it, he either fell off of or into it! Finally, he replaced Hope with a mannequin that looked just like her, thus setting the stage for a make-out session that so perturbed Liam, he cheated on his wife with Steffy. Because interrupting or having a grownup conversation about fidelity would never occur to him.
No sooner had Hope gotten over Liam’s betrayal than she was smacked once again by fate, this time by the suicide of Thomas’ pal Vinny Walker that was curiously dressed up to look like her husband had deliberately tried to make roadkill of the paternity-test tamperer. The truth eventually came to light, but like us, we have a feeling Hope didn’t believe for a second that that meant smooth sailing for her and her honey.
Upon Deacon’s release from prison in 2021, he and Hope were eager to wipe the slate clean and start their relationship anew. Everyone else in L.A.? Let’s just say that they were less enthusiastic about their reunion. Pop didn’t do himself any favors, either, by palling around with murderous madwoman Sheila Carter and vowing to be as true to Brooke as Ridge so rarely had been.
Having not made out with a mannequin in some time, Thomas threw Hope for a loop when he made the wild suggestion that maybe son Douglas (Django Ferri here) could spend a little more time at the Forrester mansion and a little less at his adoptive mom’s cabin. Cue Hope freaking out in three, two…
Unwilling to accept “no takesy backsies” as a reason for the boy (now Henry Joseph Samiri) to continue to reside at Hope’s, Thomas sued for custody and lost. As did Hope. How could neither of them wind up parenting the kid? When the judge invited Douglas to choose his home, he picked Aunt Steffy’s.
Hope’s tears over the loss of Douglas had scarcely begun to try before she was dealt another blow: Her Hope For the Future clothing line was hemorrhaging money, and the only way to stop the bleeding was to rehire Thomas, who’d been canned after sinking Brooke’s marriage to his and Steffy’s father, Ridge. If only L.A. wasn’t suffering from that awful designer shortage!
On the plus side, once it appeared to Douglas that Hope and Thomas were going to be “friends again,” the moppet was willing to move back into the cabin. At least until he realized the full scope of his bargaining power and started demanding ponies and Oompa Loompas and such.
Hope had been working with Thomas again for all of [Checks watch] five minutes before she accidentally fell into his arms and started fantasizing about kissing him. As you can see, Liam’s response was calm and measured. On the Richter scale, that is!
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